Summary

1. Spatial analysis has become increasingly popular in the biological sciences, particularly in disciplines such as landscape ecology and landscape genetics. However, many statistical functions for performing spatial analysis are not readily available (except in the most limited manner) in common, easy-to-use statistical packages or geographic information systems (GIS) software.

2. Over the last decade, the software package Pattern Analysis, Spatial Statistics and Geographic Exegesis (PASSaGE) has been popular tool for conducting spatial statistics. PASSaGE is completely free and has a user-friendly graphical user interface. A new version of PASSaGE, rewritten from the ground up, has now been released and is available for download.

3. PASSaGE 2 is significantly more user friendly than the original release and provides an excellent platform for both scientific analysis and classroom training. PASSaGE 2 includes a broad array of spatial statistical analyses not commonly found in other software packages or GIS software, all in an easy-to-use framework. It includes support for one-, two- and three-dimensional spatial analysis, including a number of unique and newly developed approaches.

20Miguel Delgado, Holocene population history of the Sabana de Bogotá region, Northern South America: An assessment of the craniofacial shape variation, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2017, 162, 2, 350Wiley Online Library